2018 Saranac Lake Ice Palace

It was time for me to travel south to the annual Saranac Lake Winter Carnival to see the ice palace. It's 49 miles from my house, an easy drive when the weather is good. I got a good look at the front of the castle as I headed to the parking area:

 I parked and began walking toward the side of the ice palace. I'm proud to say that I passed by the refreshment stand without buying anything, in spite of the wonderful aromas drifting up from the grill:

 I first walked over to the shore of Lake Flower, where there was an ice version of a traditional Adirondack lean-to:


 Next to the lean-to were two ice Adirondack chairs, perfect for relaxing in and looking out over the frozen lake:

A new addition this year - an ice out house. It was only for show, though, as no hole and no door would make using it difficult (not to mention the see-through ice):

 

 I walked from the lean-to toward the back of the ice palace just in time to see a man disappear in what I knew was a maze of passageways attached to the back of the castle:

 Indeed, the first passageway I entered was a dead end. I tried a second entrance and followed it as it led me in a jagged path to an exit on the opposite side of the castle:

 If I was a small child, I could have entered the castle right there. I imagine that it's great fun for kids to enter the ice palace ahead of their parents, and worrisome for the parents:

I had to walk around the other side for an entrance big enough for an adult:

 I entered the center area, where there were two thrones carved of ice - for the king and queen. You can see the children's crawl-through entrance on the left:

 There was an ice sculpture of a snowmobile for kids to play on and for photos:

I walked out the front doors, the opposite direction most people probably took:

 There was a giant ice bear at each end of the ice palace, and a friendly Miniature Schnauzer checked one of them out carefully. Then he peed on its foot. Alas, the other activities which have been part of the Winter Carnival in previous years, like the Arctic Miniature Golf and the Curling demonstrations, were nonexistent this year. The Carnival consisted of only the ice palace, at least for those of us who drove in from other places. Nonetheless, the Saranac Lake ice palace is a yearly tradition and I'd hate to miss it:

2017 Saranac Lake, NY Ice Palace

Perhaps my favorite local yearly event is the Saranac Lake, NY Winter Carnival. I arrived this year on the very first day and found that nothing was up and running yet except for the ice palace. That was OK with me, since it's my favorite part. I parked and entered the building site on the edge of frozen Lake Flower, my first view of the rear of the palace:

 But first I had to go see the ice lean-to, which honored the traditional Adirondack structure. This was the first year I'd seen a lean-to::

 I walked out onto frozen Lake Flower to snap a photo of the front of the lean-to. There was a pile of wood in front of it, just as campers might supply the real forest versions. I supposed they kept fires burning during the night:

 And also honoring the Adirondacks were two ice sculptures of Adirondack chairs for visitors to sit in:

 I walked from the lean-to toward the rear of the ice palace. Notice the crawl hole for children:

 The structures on the rear were mazes. This year I didn't fully investigate them, though I have in the past:
 

 I walked around to the side entrance and saw lots of other visitors already exploring the interior of the ice palace:

 In the rear were two thrones, for the Winter Carnival King and Queen:

 Behind the thrones were buck and doe ice sculptures, with a fawn between them:

 And off to one side was a giant ice beaver, perhaps eight feet long:

 And two howling wolves, next to a crawl hole for children:

 I took the adult tunnel, which led out to front exterior of the ice palace:

 There it was explained that this year's theme was "Adirondack Wildlife." A giant ice bear stood on each side of the entrance doorway and an ice eagle perched on the top:

 The two bears were popular for taking pictures:

 The smaller bear was kind of cute:

 Outside, by the road, was a gigantic moose:

 And that was the end of my ice palace tour. I had to walk around to the back of it again to get to my car. Maybe next year I'll bring Seamus with me. I see dogs there every year:

The 2016 Saranac Lake Ice Palace!

The winter of 2016 had so far been extraordinarily mild and I knew that the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival would be in trouble. But I heard on the news that they'd managed to build the annual ice palace anyway, so I drove down to take a look. I parked near Lake Flower and was pleased to see that it was covered with ice:

The ground, however, was free of snow. I walked to where they'd planned to have the yearly Arctic Miniature Golf. Each station had a colored mound of snow, remnants of the miniature golf course someone had worked so hard on, but that was all - except for this snowy Minion from "Despicable Me:"

But the stations, or holes, for the intended Arctic miniature golf were just rapidly melting piles of snow:

This one looked especially sad and apparently had once been an elaborately decorated basket of fruit:

This hole had begun as a slide with a green dragon, but all that remained was this:

So I walked over to see the ice palace. I could tell, even from a distance, that it was smaller than usual, yet I was impressed that they'd managed to build this much. Small groups of toddlers were touring the ice palace, following behind their teachers, each child holding onto a rope:

I wouldn't have known it otherwise, but I heard the children saying that this was the Batman's famous Bat-Car. It was a popular spot for children and parents, taking pictures:

I went to the front entrance, where this year's theme was boldly displayed in writing made of snow. It was Superheroes and Villains - hence the Bat-Car:

There were ice thrones inside the palace but they had melted rather badly. I saw only one other ice sculpture (bottom left of this photo), presumably a superhero, although I couldn't identify it:

Yet even this modest ice palace was a wonder to behold, and the groups of children and their excitement helped me enjoy it also:

I walked around behind the ice palace, where piles of unused ice blocks remained. The blocks looked to be about 2 X 4 feet, but only 9-12" thick this year. Normally they would be 2 feet thick:

The ice palace looked impressive, but surprisingly small from behind. I'd known that it was a tough winter for ice and snow before I'd left home and I was happy to see that the ice palace had made an appearance in spite of all the weather related obstacles. This is an event which I plan to attend every year: